As data storage devices are becoming less expensive, an increasing amount of data is retained, wherein such data can be accessed through utilization of a search engine. Accordingly, search engine technology is frequently updated to satisfy information retrieval requests of a user. Moreover, as users continue to interact with search engines, such users become increasingly adept at crafting queries that are likely to cause search results to be returned that satisfy informational requests of the users.
Conventional search engines have been adapted to assist a user in locating information pertaining to informational goals of the user by providing the user with suggested queries responsive to the user proffering a query to a search engine. There are a variety of different approaches that are employed by conventional search engines to set forth suggested queries.
Search engines have also been adapted to assist a user with query completions. A user can provide a query prefix to a search engine, wherein the query prefix includes an alphanumerical character or a sequence of alphanumerical characters. Optionally, the query prefix can also or alternatively include punctuation or other lexical symbols. Responsive to receiving the prefix, the search engine outputs one or more suggested query completions to the query prefix, and the user can select a suggested query completion for provision to the search engine. The search engine subsequently executes a search using the suggested query completion as a query. Query completions have been found to assist users in formulating queries, as the user can analyze suggested completions and select one that the user feels is best suited for her informational needs.
As mobile computing devices have continued to become increasingly prevalent, the importance of providing completions to prefixes has likewise increased. Mobile telephones are configured with robust applications that perform a task based upon input received from a user, wherein, in some circumstances, the input is textual. Due to small sizes of the mobile telephones, however, a physical keyboard is often not provided, rendering it time-consuming to provide textual input (particularly if there are numerous characters to be entered). The automatic provision of completions to a prefix saves the user time and angst (e.g., caused by accidentally entering incorrect characters) by providing the user with suggested completions to a proffered prefix. Conventional solutions for providing completions to a prefix, however, are not space efficient.